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OCTOBER, 1906.] THE ORIGIN OF THE DEVANAGARI ALPHABET.
"In one, fig. 30, does there appear any approach to alphabetic characters, and here the letters resemble those of the lats, or of the caves on Western India, the most ancient written form of the Sanskrit language. From the above originals seem to have descended two distinct families, of which one was produced by the hammer and die, the other by casting in a mould. Of the latter, easily recognisable by the depth of the relief, the projecting keel on the margin, showing where the moulds were united - and the greater corrosion due to the softness of the cast metal, we have various groups and subdivisions, but most of them agree in bearing the monogram for the obverse, sometimes as in figs 34-37, with addition of two smaller symbols, 8, like the sign of Taurus reversed."
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"On the reverse we have frequently a dog with a collar (and bell ?), guarding a sword or a flagstaff of victory (Jayadhvaja, figs. 20, 21, 34, 36). At other times an elephant (fig. 39), a ball (37), or the sacred tree (15, 18), and, in rarer cases, the device on both sides is changed as in figs. 40, 41. Figs. 18, 42, 43 (in the latter of which the elephant might easily be mistaken for a Devanagarî letter) are of the cast species."
"How far the antiquity of the first Buddhistic groups of coins may have approached the epoch of Buddha (544 B. C.), it is difficult to determine, but the acquisition of their similitude to the Indu-Scythic coins must have been posterior to the breaking up of the genuine Bactrian Dynasty, perhaps about the commencement of the Christian era."
As it is unnecessary to reproduce here the figures of all the coins referred to in the quotation, only such figures as can throw some light on the nature and form of Indian hieroglyphics are reproduced in Plate III. It can be seen from the figures how a circle followed by two circles and a triangle beneath are, as described in the verse of the Tripuropanishad quoted above, stamped on Hindu coins, the antiquity of which admits of no doubt whatever. What in the above quotation is imagined to be a dog with a collar, is no other than the figure of Sakti, made up of a circle and two circles, crowned with the figure of half moon. Only the circles are not drawn apart and are not exactly circular. This clumsiness is clearly due to the rude process of sketching or stamping the hieroglyphics on pieces of metal. Similarly, the symbol oo, mistaken for Chaitya, is clearly the figure of Kami-kala without the triangle, but with an additional symbol of a half moon to form a crown for the goddess. Whether the figures of Kami-kala or of Siva (figs. 2, 3, 4, group 1; figs. 19, 33, group 2; and fig. 1, group 3 Plate III.) were superposed after the symbols of similar or different description became worn out, it is quite impossible to determine. Anyhow, there is no reason to doubt that those coins which contain only symbols are far anterior to those that contain regular inscriptions. For it is not only unlikely, but also unnatural, that coins with inere symbols should have been struck when writing had become current.
As regards the relation between these symbols and a few of the Devanagari characters, it is not merely either an accidental approach in resemblance or an imaginary one, as in the case of Prof. Bühler's Semitic models and the Brahmi Characters, but such a perfect likeness as mast necessarily and unmistakably exist between a parent and its offspring. The symbol in fig. 43, which, in the above quotation, was not only mistaken for an elephant, but also apprehended as likely to be mistaken for a Devanagari letter, appears to have been intended, together with the other symbols, to mean the name Ayodhya.' A, wy, or = db, Y=y. The last symbol D=dh, with another symbol I as in fig. 5, seems to have been intended to convey the idea dhana,' wealth. Similarly, the symbols in figs. 17 and 18 seem to have been intended to mean 'Ayodhye' and Ayodhyam,' the Svastika figares,, like the double rectangle of fig. 43, standing for A. It is immaterial whether the ancient mint authorities had or had not such an idea while stamping their coins with these symbols, and there is
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